Budget & DIY...my Insourcing for the week...

 

Insourcing is my way of tallying my value in the home. Do you ever do that? It gives me and my family a great way of putting a dollar value on all that we do.

 

This week, determined to stick to my Life Manifesto...

 

 

...I generated roses from several materials, and worked on the continuing renovation of our kitchen, which truly is the hub of life around here.

 

I created some rolled crepe paper roses, using hand dyed and stamped crepe paper streamers...

 

You start by making one of those accordion style streamers where you fold and fold to get this effect above.

 

You then secure the ends, and roll it around your fingers to get this very pretty rose effect. See here for a slideshow of instructions that I created last year. It will make more sense.

 



 

You can use fabric to make these as well. I made a few from a remnant of navy blue raw silk that surfaced in my fabric collection last week. I was supposed to be ....ahem...decluttering, but what's a girl to do when faced with lustrous silk and faux pearls?

 

I think I'll stitch these to cushions for the living room...

 

 

These efforts save me enormously in seeking satisfaction by shopping or spending. These days I am very content, fluffing around in my craft room, finding new fabrics and trims with which to adorn my home. And if I can't grow roses (although goodness knows I'll keep trying!), then I am determined to have roses around me in other ways.

 

 My son replanted his garden pod. He's an avid courtyard gardener, and this is worth mentioning as insourcing here, because not only does this give him free vegetables, but he gifts the excess to me! My son has Cerebral Palsy and grows his own food in his tiny enclosed courtyard attached to his apartment. If he can do it, anyone can. I'm great with herbs and fruit. He's great with herbs and veges. Between the two of us, we do okay. I'll call that a saving of about $15 on herbs this week.

 

 

I menu planned and shopped accordingly. This process is vital for effective time and money management, and for reducing waste and frustration! I start by looking at the week ahead, and what sort of timetable we have, then plan accordingly. Menu planning is not just about planning what you want to eat, and buying the ingredients. You can see more on this here.

 

I plan for the nights we are all home, and the ones we are not. I plan my prep schedule as well, to make the meal creating process as smooth as possible. I plan for breakfasts, lunches and snacks, not just for the evening meal. This makes a huge difference to how well we eat, how healthy we are, and how much I spend.

 

This week while shopping, I got some great bargains on blocks of cheese. I found these at a market that sells fresh meat and produce at prices far below the supermarket prices. I don't go there often, but when I do, I always wonder why I don't make it part of my monthly shopping routine. I feel some changes afoot! I've been inspired on this topic by Annabels posts at The Bluebirds are Nesting, on shopping further afield, and making the most of our budgets.

 

I grated some of the cheese using my rotary grater. I love how it spirals out from the base of the grater, and yields these lovely fine strands of cheese to pile abundantly upon anything from pizzas, to lasagna and sandwiches. This method of grating makes a small amount of cheese look really generous, so those little rotary parmesan graters are well worth the investment.

 

I sliced and cubed the rest of my bargain cheese, and popped it into the freezer. I think we have about 4 months supply of cheese for under $20. And we eat a lot of cheese! That's a saving of around $100.

 

I also found small knobs of Virginia ham which we like for it's lower fat content, and sliced those up for sandwiches and cooking. They too, were about one third of the price of a similar purchase, even at Aldi, the supermarket of choice around here. I purchased 3 knobs of ham for $12. These would normally be $12 each. $24 saved.

I taught my daughter how to make a baked cheesecake. She'd seen one in Coles for $38. $38!!! For a cheesecake? Has the world gone mad? We baked this one for under $5. A cheesecake after all, is just cream cheese beaten with eggs and flavouring, and baked till firm. We added passionfruit pulp to ours as we have a glut of passionfruit gifted by my Mother-in-Law.

 

 

Baked cheesecake is not the most beautiful thing as seen above, still cooling in it's springform tin. But frankly the one in Coles was far less attractive, and at nearly 8 times the price, pretty measly looking too! I can assure you, that my baked cheesecake is melt-in-the-mouth delicious!

 

 

Here's the only photograph I managed of a slice of our cheesecake. It disappeared too quickly! But you can see from this photo, that ours had a light, mousse-like texture, that I'm fairly certain was an improvement on the Coles bakery version! At $5 vs $38, that's a saving of $33.

 

Here's my recipe in four sentences:

 

Beat 500gms of cream cheese with 3 eggs, the pulp of 3-6 passionfruit, and 1/2 cup of caster (superfine) sugar. Pour into a springform pan, lined with a mixture of 250gms of crushed biscuits mixed with 120gms of melted butter, pressed firmly into the base. Bake at 160C fan forced, until just firm in the middle, around 35-55 minutes depending upon your oven and the size of your pan. Allow to cool in the pan, then remove the outer ring of the springform, and chill before serving.

 

I sourced the makings of some gifts on eBay some weeks ago, and these all arrived. I formed small sewing kits with Eiffel Tower scissors and hand made needle threaders to gift to Mums who had helped with costume making for the school. At around $6 for each kit, as opposed to $35 each for the ones I had admired, it was a significant saving. 10 kits for $60 over 10 kits for $350! A saving of $290!

 

I found this lovely photograph and quote in a Notebook magazine I leafed through, saving clippings and recipes as I went. I then discarded the magazine. I'm a bit of a bower bird for magazines, and have to force myself to cull them regularly. They take up so much space! I'll call that a sanity saving...lol!

 

I posted this pic and quote on Instagram, and interestingly Marie-Anne Lecouer, (author and owner of The French Chic Academy), who follows me on Instagram, commented thus..

"I like that. Many people would say it is a poverty mindset and you have to spend what you can't afford to be in alignment etc. But I say thrift is about character and looking for value. Seek value in everything that you do and then you find value everywhere. Moreover you will find it within you - that is the most valuable thing you have".

 

So I guess this fits with the French philosophy of not spending indiscriminately, and saving for those things you truly value, thus appreciating them more. It's that idea of quality, not quantity. Don't be thinking that being 'thrifty', equates to being 'cheap'. There is nothing wrong with feeling you have generated VALUE in making your purchases, be it a new car, a new coat, or the weekly grocery spend. This is an important mindset, and one that I only appreciate more and more as I grow older.

 

Your efforts at making the family budget stretch, should never been seen as mean or stingy. You are simply seeking the best value for your dollar, and for your family. That is a skill of which to be proud.

 

While culling my magazine collection, I also found these cute cheese graters. I just thought I'd share them here because they're pretty. Why shouldn't a cheese grater be useful and pretty?

 

I found time to admire the inspiration for my oven alcove too...

 

...soon, soon.

 

Meanwhile the kitchen renovation progresses ever slowly, as things do when you're a DIY-er  Insourcing. I have to say I am quite thrilled with my new Husband-built cabinetry, with cute Faux window. That was an afterthought, and one that I loved immediately.

 

That window was going to be blocked in, but when the cabinetry inadvertently sort of grew around the window, we decided to leave it like that. I feel like I could run over any time, fling the window open, and call 'Dinners Ready', just like my Mum used to. Husband made the cute faux window frame, and attached the brass fittings. Clever Husband also cut, stained and coated that bench top in 2-pac. I think it looks lovely. I cannot even guess at how much we saved by building all of that ourselves. Probably thousands. Let's say $1,000 for arguments sake. That will do.

 

The next step in the kitchen renovation will be to remove the current oven and ceramic hotplate. That's going to leave a hole in the benchtop, and I was a bit lost for how to disguise it. We've decided the solution will be an insert of marble into the bench, allowing it sit above the bench with a lambs tongue edge, as seen in this picture. My benchtops are almost identical to those seen here below, but with the high gloss finish of my nook, seen above. I already have an inset marble chopping and kneading block at the other end of my bench, so we will replace that with the same lambs ear edged marble, and they'll both look like they were meant to be there. I hope. Gulp. We'll source the marble directly from the factory here, as we did previously. I estimate the cost will be around $200-$300 as opposed to $1500 quoted by a kitchen specialist. That's a $1200 saving. Husband will install them.

 

So that gives me a DIY  Insourcing tally of $1662, plus whatever I saved by crafting rather than shopping and spending. I'm happy to call it a $1700 week, knowing that the kitchen renovation DIY efforts have saved us enormously.

 

How was your week? I know you're good at this insourcing thing too. I'm dying to hear!

 

 

...Mimi...